All of that is a magnet and a beacon for people to come. You can’t have any kind of beacon without securing the border first. It really illustrates what conservatives have been saying all along, myself included: You can’t vote for immigration reform, you can’t have immigration reform without first securing the border.

Paul was interviewed by Matthew Boyle of Breitbart News, who staked out the entrance to the headquarters during the meeting and solicited comments from several GOP senators.

Paul expressed his support for S. 2631, introduced by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on July 17 — “A bill to prevent the expansion of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals [DACA] program unlawfully created by Executive memorandum on August 15, 2012.”

“I think he wants to do exactly what I was saying, basically,” Paul said when Boyle asked him about Cruz’s bill. “You can’t have the beacon first and he wants to overturn the president’s executive action — and I would support that.”

Despite his verbal endorsement of Cruz’s bill, as of July 22 Paul had not co-sponsored it. (Most likely he will soon.) So far, there are three co-sponsors of S. 2631: Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), James Inhofe (R-Okla.), and David Vitter (R-La.)

S. 2631 reads, in part:

No agency or instrumentality of the Federal Government may use Federal funding or resources:

(1) to consider or adjudicate any new or previously denied application of any alien requesting consideration of deferred action for childhood arrivals, as authorized by Executive memorandum on August 15, 2012; or

2) to authorize any alien to work in the United States if such alien:

(A) was not lawfully admitted into the United States in compliance with the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq.); and

(B) is not in lawful status in the United States on the date of the enactment of this Act.

Cruz issued a press release on July 17 explaining his reasons for introducing S. 2631: “We all recognize the terrible humanitarian crisis that is occurring at the border, and all of us should come together to end the policies that have caused it.”

Cruz noted that since Obama’s unilateral action in 2012 to implement DACA, the number of children arriving in the United States illegally has “predictably exploded.” The senator stated that the children from Central America were being “transported by dangerous criminals and drug cartels eager to exploit President Obama’s amnesty.”